My rantings and occasionally informed thoughts

Category Archives: Tornadoes

It’s been tornado weather lately, which raises one point about the language that we use to describe that particular kind of wind. In my own experience, a tornado does not sound like a train. Trains have a heavy bass rumble and a high-pitched mechanical whine, along with the mid-range groaning. A tornado, by contrast, sounds like an industrial fan. That is, until it gets close, and the air pressure drops. After that, most sound is of crashing and smashing.